RICHMOND — Six points out of the final automatic spot into the Chase, Jeff Gordon arrived in Richmond for the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway needing a very good weekend. It started off well enough Friday as Gordon captured the pole for Saturday's 400-lap, 300 mile race at RIR.

With his first pole of 2013, Gordon has earned at least one pole in 21 consecutive seasons, breaking the previous record of 20 set from 1963-82 by NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson. The practical implications of the first starting position appeared to interest Gordon more than the history.

"That is amazing," he said. "I didn't think it was going to come this year, I'll be honest.

"Qualifying has not been very good for me and our team this year. Very proud of this one, boy, it comes at a great time.

"We know how important the number one pit stall is and starting up front. Woo, I can breathe now."

Jimmie's still favorite

Jimmie Johnson's average finish of worse than 34th place in the three races prior to Richmond made him fair game for media wondering how such form will affect his quest for a sixth championship. His competition seems to consider the lack of momentum irrelevant.

"There is a switch somewhere over at Hendrick Motorsports they'll flip next week, and they'll be just fine in Chicago," Kyle Busch said, referring to the site of the first Chase race. "You've got to give credit where credit is due.

"Certainly the 48 team has shown that they're the ones to respect when you go into the final 10 races, because they've done it before and they've been so close so many times."

Crash or not to crash

Most drivers on the Chase bubble this weekend fielded some version of the question about whether they'd crash another driver if it was the only way to win the race and make the Chase. For Ryan Newman, who was barely on the outside looking in at the Chase going into Saturday's race, the question was pertinent, but he had fun with it anyway.

"She's taken," Newman said, generating laughter, before taking a serious stab at the question. "It all depends: Everything is a situation.

"If that guy roughs you up to get where you are, maybe. If that person is the one who caused you mischief earlier in the season, maybe.

"If that person is somebody you extremely respect, know they wouldn't do that to you, maybe not."

Different question for Denny Hamlin

Just three years after missing out on the Cup championship by a whisker, former Langley Speedway Mini-Stock champion Denny Hamlin entered Richmond with no shot at making the Chase. He was asked how strange it is to be in that position for the first time in eight full seasons as a Cup driver.

"Kind of prepared for this moment, but it's still obviously tough knowing that we don't have much to race for during the rest of the season except to try to build momentum for next year," he said.

Hamlin missed four races, and part of a fifth, after injuring his back in a crash during the March 24 Cup race in Fontana, Calif.

Keselowski wins Nationwide race

Grabbing the lead for the first time after a restart on lap 240, Brad Keselowski subsequently survived a seventh caution and a final restart to beat Brian Scott to the finish line by 1.947 seconds in Friday night's Nationwide race at Richmond, the 1,000th race in series history.

With a dominant car and excellent work by his pit crew, Scott had led the first 239 of 250 laps before Keselowski grabbed the lead from the outside lane on the next-to-last restart and held it the rest of the way.

The victory was Keselowski's fifth in 12 starts this season and the 25th of his career. Regan Smith ran fourth, followed by Kyle Busch and Trevor Bayne. Series leader Sam Hornish Jr. finished sixth.

Scott dominated from the outset while Keselowski worked his way toward the front. By the time Keselowski cleared Busch for the second position on lap 195, Scott held a lead of more than 1.5 seconds over the No. 22 Ford. But slowly, inexorably, Keselowski began to close on Scott's No. 2 Chevrolet.

By lap 210, the margin was 0.823 of a second. After Scott worked traffic on lap 217, his advantage shrank to 0.428, roughly three car-lengths. But Scott pulled away to a lead of more than a second before caution for Hal Martin's brush with the wall slowed the race on lap 229.